An Army private's well-publicized claim that she joined the service after her daughter was injured in Iraq is not true, a Redstone Arsenal spokesman said.

An Army investigation found that Pfc. Cindra Smith's daughter has never been in the military, said Andy Roake of Redstone public affairs. He said the Army contacted the family and did a record search using the daughter's Social Security number. "Nobody by that name was found,'' Roake said.

Roake also said Smith's daughter was contacted and she confirmed that she has not been in the Army.

He said a public affairs representative at the bomb school on Redstone where Smith was in training originally learned of Smith's story about her daughter from talking with other soldiers. "It was picked up as a good human interest story the way it was originally told - about her being influenced by her daughter's injury to go into disarming explosive devices,'' Roake said. "It turns out that the key piece was fabricated.''

............................

According to the Army, an e-mail it received after the article was published said Smith's daughter had never been in the military.

"We did indeed research (Smith's) claim that her daughter was injured in Iraq during Operation (Iraqi) Freedom, and that her daughter's injury was one reason she joined the Army,'' said Roake. "After a review of the facts, it was determined that her daughter had never been a member of the armed services.''

According to the Army, Smith did not return from an excused leave on Sept. 12, and was considered "absent without official leave.'' She returned on Sept. 22, the Army said, and is back with her unit, the Ordnance Munitions and Electronics Maintenance School (OMEMS) on Redstone.

Roake said the Army "trusts our soldiers to have integrity and that is one of our key tenets.''

He said the false claims were unfortunate and that every attempt is made to verify information before it is released.

Remember, this was the woman who had abandoned her sick daughter and refused to see her dying mother. Well, she didn't have a sick daughter.

Ok, when does she get chaptered out. An EOD expert who broke her hip in basic and is now seen as a patholigical liar needs to get the fuck out of the Army.

Imagine this bag of nuttiness in Ramadi defusing bombs. Or not and saying she did.